Automatic poultry-house-door opener.



0. H. BUCK. AUTOMATIC POU'L'IRY HOUSE DOOR OPENER.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 30, 1912.

I I "I I IHHI Patented Apr. 22, 1913.

Fig.2.

CHARLES HENRY BUCK, OF ROOSEVELT, ARIZONA.

AUTOMATIC POULTRY-HOUSE-DOOR OPENER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed November 30, 1912.

Patented Apr. 22, 1913. Serial No. 734,262.

To all whom, it may concern Be it known that I, CHARLES H. BUCK,

' a citizen of the United States, residing at Roosevelt, in the county of Gila, State of Arizona, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Poultry- House-Door Openers; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to doors for poultry houses and has for an object to provide a door which may be manually closed at night to imprison the hens and may be opened in the morning by the hens.

A further object of the invention is to provide a novel counter-balanced lever for holding the door closed, and a novel hinged platform for holding the lever in active po sition, the platform being adapted to rock downward upon a hen stepping thereupon and trip said lever with a resultant release and opening of said door.

With the above objects in view the invention consists of certain novel details of construction and combination of parts hereinafter fully described and claimed, it being understoodthat various modifications may be made in the minor details of construction within the scope of the appended claim.

In the accompanying drawing forming part of this specification :Figure 1 is a front elevation of a poultry house front wall equipped with my improved door. Fig. 2 is a rear elevation of the front wall and door. Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the front wall with the door open. Fig. 4 is a rear elevation of the front wall with the door open. Fig. 5 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line 55 Fig. 2 with the platform and door controlling mechanism shown in released position in dotted lines. Fig. 6 is a fragmentary sectional view taken on the line 66 Fig. 4.

Referring now to the drawing in which like characters of reference designate similar parts, 10 designates the front wall of a poultry house and formed therein is a door opening 11. A door 12 is pivoted at the lower corner to the inner side of the front wall 10 by means of a pivot pin 13 and is adapted to be rocked upward to close the door opening and to gravitate downward to expose the door opening. A lug 14 is secured to the front face of the door and projects through the door opening and forms means. for holding the door raised to operative position.

A substantially straight locking bar 15 is pivoted near one end on the outer face of the front wall 10 by means of a pivot pin 16, the bar extending substantially horizontally across the front wall and terminating at one end in a downwardly opening hook 17 which projects into the door opening and is adapted to engage with the door lug let and hold the door in operative position. The opposite end of the lever is bent upwardly as shown at 18 and forms a counter-balancing weight which tends to gravitate and raise the hook 17 from the door lug to release the door which immediately swings downward to expose the door opening. The lowering movement of the weighted end of the locking bar is limited by contact of the bar with a stop lug 19 carried on the outer face of the front wall 10.

For normally holding the locking bar or counterbalanced lever as the member 15 may be termed,v in operative position, a platform 20 is hinged by means of spaced hinges 21 to the inner face of the front wall and is provided with an upstanding arm 22 between the hinges, this arm being provided with a lateral finger 23 which projects loosely through a slot 2 1 formed in the front wall 10 and engages underneath of the weighted end of the counter-balanced lever holding said end raised and the hooked end of the lever in engagement with the lug of the door. The weight of the lever is such as to hold the platform against gravitation until a hen steps upon the platform whereupon the platform will be rocked downwardly and will pull the finger 23 from underneath the weighted end of the lever, the latter immediately gravitating and re leasing the door. Pivotal movement of the platform is limited by means of a pin 25 which is passed through an opening 26 in the arm 22 and engaged in the inner face of the front wall 10, the pin being equipped with a head 27 against which the arm con tacts during depression of the platform and limits such movement of the platform.

In operation the door is raised to operative position at night and the counter-balanced lever engaged with the door lug, the platform being rocked up at the same time until the finger 23 engages underneath and supports the weighted end of the lever. Corn or other grain may be scattered upon the platform, and at daylight the hens will jump on to the platform to get the grain whereupon the platform is rocked downwardly and the counter-balanced lever released to free the door which immediately gravitates to open position.

What is claimed, is

The combination with a support having a door opening, of a gravity door pivoted at one lower corner to one face of said support and adapted to close said door opening, a lug carried by said door projecting through said door opening, a counter-balanced lever on the opposite face of said support adapted to engage said lug to hold said door closed, a platform hinged on the same side of said support as said door, and an arm carried by said platform having a terminal finger engaged through said support and adapted to bear against and hold said lever in operative position, said platform being adapted to rock downward and withdraw said finger from engagement with said lever, whereupon said lever gravitates and releases said door, said door immediately gravitating to open position.

In testimony whereof, I aflix my signature,

in the presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES HENRY BUCK. WVitnesses:

E. J. VEBB, T. W. CLINE.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the' Commissioner of Patents. Washington, I). C. 

